Special Area Spotlight

Chantilly Montessori

Special Area Spotlight

Chantilly Montessori

February 2016

Art

Primary - Students will finish their celebration of China projects and will begin a project about Africa.

Lower El - Students will create artwork after the artist Piet Mondrian and will also begin a study of birds.

Upper El - Students will create ceramic face jugs in the style of North Carolina artist Burlon Craig. They will also begin two related projects about Blackbeard the pirate.

Media

Primary - Students will begin a new unit on the NC Children's Books Award (NCCBA) nominees. Students will continue to learn story elements (characters, setting, basic plot, problem, and solution) as well as learn the difference between fiction and nonfiction text. Students will also gain practice using a desktop computer to locate online resources.

Lower El - Students will learn about the research process through a variety of activities.

Upper El - Students will complete their author research group projects and will share them via Google Slides. They will also begin a new unit about the biography genre and will research a famous North Carolinian.

Music

Primary - Did you know that there is a direct correlation between one's ability to keep a steady beat and their ability to process language? Much work has been done in this area, and to that end, the primary classes spend a great deal of time developing their ability to keep a steady beat. This ability is often in place by age 2 or 3, but is sometimes missing, even in adults. If you would like to know more, please contact me and we can talk about this important developmental element.

Lower Elementary - Students will refine and expand their rhythmic skills. Using unpitched percussion, they will aurally and visually recognize rhythmic phrases and create their own rhythms using instruments and body percussion.

Upper Elementary - Students will expand their ability to maintain a consistent tempo when playing in a drum circle. They will aurally and visually identify complex rhythm patterns that include notes and rests from sixteenth notes to whole notes.

Chorus - Students voted on a story to share in April. We will announce the title soon. They are learning a couple of "vintage" tunes and a familiar Beatles' song to share in future performances. We welcome any students in grades 3 - 6 to join us - it's not too late! Let me know if your child is interested and I will help with the sign-up process.

Orchestra - We heard a lovely trio at the January 21st UE Creativity, 2016 and look forward to hearing more wonderful solos or duets at the February 4th showcase.

PE

Primary - Students will participate in Jump Rope for Heart early in the Month of February. At the conclusion of that unit, we will begin exploring manipulative skills such as bouncing, striking, tossing and dribbling.

Lower El - Classes will participate in Jump Rope for Heart in February and then they will begin focusing on manipulative skills, more specifically, rolling and striking. Lower El students will all so be working on evaluating one another while performing these manipulative skills.

Upper El - Students will participate in the Jump Rope for Heart event at the beginning of February. The week following that, they will begin a bowling unit. In this unit they will refine their rolling skills as well as learn a variety of “bowling games” and how to keep score in each of those games.

Health - Students are currently in the middle of a unit called Interpersonal Communication and Relationships. This unit will take us to the end of February to complete. These lessons focus on how to effectively talk and listen to each other. Learning these skills creates an understanding of each other’s differences and how to problem-solve peacefully when a disagreement arises.

Jump Rope for Heart - Jump Rope for Heart Forms came home in your child’s book bag the last week in January. If you misplaced your form and would like to participate in our fundraiser, please let me know so that I may get you another copy of the letter and form. Please turn in any donations along with the form by February 12th.